It’s the 1890s in the gold fields of Australia. J.G. Milford has hopped off the train in Koolgalla to take on a job at the local paper. She’s smart, she’s savvy, she’s incredibly qualified, but nobody knew the J stood for Jenny!

Inspired by the ideas-driven comedies of George Bernard Shaw, Oriel Gray’s The Torrents is a newsroom drama married to a screwball comedy. On the one hand, debate is raging about whether the town should give up mining for a more sustainable economic future. On the other, newspaper editor Rufus Torrent and his son Ben are vying for Jenny’s favour, even as she pulls apart their chauvinistic assumptions.

The Torrents was written in 1955. That year, it was joint winner of the prestigious Playwrights’ Advisory Board Competition with Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. In the role of Jenny, award-winning comedian and actor Celia Pacquola (ABC’s Rosehaven) will put the spotlight back on this rarely seen Aussie classic.